So Credo Has the iPhone

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I just saw that Credo Mobile now has the iPhone. That's pretty much the only company I'd get a smart phone from. My current phone is T-mobile and while I don't like some of their business practices they are not as bad as Verizon or AT&T. It's just fine for what it is, which is cheap basic "dumb" phone service. (I just don't like T-mobile's data policy.) Prepaid is okay because I still don't use it much. That might change though if I have to change jobs or if I start dating again.

I've never had a smart phone, and I don't like it when everyone walks around with their faces buried in them all the time. Still, I can see the advantage of having internet access and especially music on the go. I like my Kindle and a smart phone will never be as good for reading email or games, but a phone doesn't need wifi and can fit in my pocket. Unless I'm on campus and have my backpack with me, I don't have my Kindle on me. For that matter there are times when I wish I had my camera or that it were easier to carry or that it were nicer or easier on batteries.

I was late to get a cell phone and I never upgraded it. I've had my Samsung flip phone for about seven years and it has held up well. It does need to be charged a little more often now but it still works just fine. Really I don't think I've ever had a serious problem with anything from Samsung. Minor annoyances yes, but nothing too bad. (Like why can't I just save the number of the person who just called me?) LG electronics have been just as good and just as reliable but less user friendly.

So if I do get a smart phone the Galaxy S3 is the default choice. I've heard nothing but rave reviews of it and I can get one for free with a two year contract.

What gives me pause is that the iPhone is probably more user friendly and less prone to compatibility issues- even the best Android phones don't run all Android apps. Especially since I've never had a smart phone before maybe I should go with something easier. Also, if the Macbook does work out, the iPhone will play nice with it much more so than the Samsung will.

The problem with the free iPhone is that the specs just aren't as good. I'm not a power user, but I want to put off obsolescence as long as I reasonably can. I'd be well pleased if my second cell phone lasted as long as my first.

Okay, so here's Credo's page of smart phone offerings: Mobile Phones, Camera Phone, Flip and Smartphones : CREDO Mobile

I've narrowed it down to four:

Two free
Galaxy S3: Samsung Galaxy S® III 16GB - Blue
iPhone 4s: Apple® iPhone® 4s 8GB - Black

Two at $50, which is actually pretty good, even with a two year contract at $65 a month.
S4: Samsung Galaxy S® 4 - Black Mist
iPhone 5c: Apple® iPhone® 5c 16GB - Blue

All are well reviewed but Cnet at least says the S4 is practically flawless while every iPhone gets a 4 out of 5. Then again, part of what they're reviewing is the carrier and both AT&T and Verizon are terrible.

I know you guys are likely to have a pro-Apple slant but do you have any advice?
 
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Well that sucks. I did a little more digging and it turns out the S3 (at least with Credo) can't be used in all countries, including some I'd like to visit. It seems the iPhones have fewer issues with international travel.
 
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You will probably get more input if you post in a more appropriate forum...i.e. iPhone, iPad, iPod.
 
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Probably. I guess I didn't think that through. Will the mods move it?
 
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You pose some good thoughts...and I hope you get input. The mods are great about putting things in their place.
 
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I just realized- if it comes down to the S4 vs the 5c, with Samsung the insurance is $5, but with Apple it's free. That actually saves me $120 over two years, which is still a net of $70 over the free S3.
 
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chas_m

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The S III was a "good enough" phone (and its popularity supports this) but I don't consider it in the same class as the iPhone 4S never mind any later iPhone models. The S4, as far as I can tell, is just a rebranded S III with a bunch of extra features nobody uses.

The only thing on the market that's better than a 5c is, IMO, a 5s. So it's a pretty easy choice given your other factors like insurance. If you can stretch to getting a 32GB 5c I feel sure you will not regret it.
 
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Is it really worth another $100 just for more storage? I don't plan on putting video on the thing.

I think the iPhone might be better for me just because I'm not used to smart phones and I should start with something easier. I don't like to mess with my tech much anyway.
 

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The differences between the 5S and 5C are more than just the storage. The 5S also sports the faster processor and the M7 motion co-processor.

One thing you'll find with Android phones, especially the Samsung ones are that they are chock full of features that you might or might not use. Samsung is constantly trying to cram as many features as possible into their phones while the iPhone's have a select number of features, but they work really well and are intuitive..

One of the thing against Android phones in general to someone who hasn't been using them for any length of time is that they can be complex to understand and use. This is one blame never leveled against iOS.
 

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The S III was a "good enough" phone (and its popularity supports this) but I don't consider it in the same class as the iPhone 4S never mind any later iPhone models. The S4, as far as I can tell, is just a rebranded S III with a bunch of extra features nobody uses.

The only thing on the market that's better than a 5c is, IMO, a 5s. So it's a pretty easy choice given your other factors like insurance. If you can stretch to getting a 32GB 5c I feel sure you will not regret it.

Well that's blatantly not true. Samsung is hardly going to throw in features into a phone that they think nobody is going to use.
 
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I just don't get the sense that the 5s is worth $100-$200 more. I'm not a power user. I'd want something that's going to last 5 years, but still.
 

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Say the iPhone 5C or any other current smart phone does exactly what you want, the only way you are going to able to use it for a lengthy period of time like 5 years (yes, in technology land, 5 years is quite long) is to keep the phone at the current OS level and not upgrade.

While this might work for a couple of years, the problem will become that being a smart phone, you'll want to start using some new application (it's always the app that causes you grief, not the device or the OS) which will require a more recent version of the OS since developers are not going to support older versions of the OS for a long period of time.

Now, the newer versions of the OS will demand more from the, now, dated phone hardware and you end up with diminished performance and frustration that things are slow.

So the realistic expectation is that you will use your smart phone for 2 (maximum 3 years) from the date of purchase and you will almost definitely want to upgrade to the, then, current generation phone at that point. The upgrade is inevitable..

Trying to compare your flip phone that you got 7 years out of to a smart phone is futile..
 
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Fair enough but I'm not sure what that app would be. I really can't think of anything I'd be doing that would be very demanding. It's not like I have to have the latest greatest games.
 

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Unfortunately, it isn't a matter of a demanding game or not..

Let's talk Android for a second, one of the most popular versions of Android was Gingerbread, since then there has been Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. Kit Kat was JUST released and is slow rolling out to the various phones.

But if you look at the break-down of all Android phones and what version of the OS was running on them, Gingerbread took up a respectively 25% or more. So app developers (even ones that create the simplest app) used Gingerbread as the baseline OS for their support. That meant, they had to have a device running Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean to test their app on to make sure that it all worked well.

Now with the release of Kit Kat, a lot of people on Gingerbread are moving over to ICS or Jelly Bean. With the dwindling percentage, app developers can drop Gingerbread support.

Now the support gets dropped in a update of the existing app. If you happen to be the unlucky soul with the now 3+ year old phone running Gingerbread, your app gets stuck at the version it's on. Now, for some apps that isn't a problem. For other apps, the app might stop working until you update, and you can't update the app since your OS version is too old. Your options are to stop using that app or upgrade your phone to get a newer OS.

Looking at iOS, there are folks still out there using iPhone 3G/3GS. These phones are stuck on iOS 4 and cannot upgrade. There is iOS 5, iOS 6 and iOS 7. Do you really think an app developer is going to go out of their way to support iOS 4? The answer is no, and that means iPhone 3G/3GS users are out of luck. And to be honest, most app developers usually stick with the current version of an OS and one version prior. So iOS 6 and iOS 7..
 
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chas_m

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Well that's blatantly not true. Samsung is hardly going to throw in features into a phone that they think nobody is going to use.

HAHAHA you don't know Samsung very well, do you? :)

I was using the colloquial "nobody" rather that the literal "absolutely not a single person on the whole of planet Earth" usage, but yes I do mean "features that nobody uses" -- like waving at your phone to answer a call (which is soooo much more difficult than swiping the screen to answer a call).

But don't take my word for it -- I'm not a regular Android user. Here's a sample (of many) reviews of the S4 -- this one from AndroidCentral, you'll note. Scroll down to the section called "Look at all these features I will never use":

Samsung Galaxy S4, three months on | Android Central

Again, I could have posted many other similar sentiments from Android-centric sites. Google "Galaxy S4 useless features" and see for yourself.
 
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chas_m

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And to be honest, most app developers usually stick with the current version of an OS and one version prior. So iOS 6 and iOS 7..

To put this another way: very, very few users hang on to a smartphone for five years. Most change within three years or less:

https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/ios_7

(tl;dr -- iOS 7 at 77 percent, iOS 6 at 20 percent, older at 3.33 percent) ... this for developers is a major selling point for iOS over Android ...

However, given that cerebus classifies him/herself as a light user who is new to smartphones, despite my recommendation for a 32GB he or she could go for a 16GB and be fine if they're not storing much in the way of videos.

Just be aware that you will probably be replacing this next phone (whatever you end up choosing) within three years ... not that it's going to cost you anything (more) to do so ...
 
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Is that why contracts are exactly two years?
 
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chas_m

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I suspect that contracts are two years because the carriers have to make back their subsidy plus profits, and that's the minimum amount of time they need to do so.

In a world where a new model of a given phone appears every year, two years is also the average turnaround on a smartphone: such devices are still very new things, and each year brings big strides in performance over the previous models (computers, a much more mature market, by and large sees a lot less in the way of huge, paradigm-shifting changes, and consequently people can hold onto them for longer).

The carriers make this pretty easy: at the end of your contract, you can basically move to whatever new phone you want for very little or nothing (depending on what model you choose). You can opt to buy the phones outright, which means you don't have a contract (and the phone is usually unlocked, good for those who travel to different countries) ... but the cost is closer to $700 on the best phones, and you'll probably still want a new one after 2-3 years because of the rapid pace of improvements.

Smartphones are expensive, but they are also powerful ... and ubiquitous data and computing power/media storage in your hand *will* change the way you live your life (seriously), that's why iPhones et al are such a big deal ... so it requires a bit of a rethink compared to the way you might use a feature phone (ie just phone, messaging and email).
 
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Okay, so let's say I get a car, which I'm also considering. I'm guessing there's a GPS app for the iPhone that I could use for road trips? I'd have to get some kind of dash mount of course- I don't want to be holding the thing while driving. Could that even be done by voice command? Totally hands free?
 
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None are hands free that I am aware of, but there are many GPS apps for the iPhone, including the free one that comes with it from Apple.
 

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